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Confusion over Bangladesh’s position in ICC ODI rankings

BCB president Nazmul Hassan claimed on Monday that Bangladesh would be placed fifth in the ICC ODI rankings in May, but it was soon followed by confusion surrounding the actual ranking.

ESPNcricinfo understands that Bangladesh will retain their seventh position when the ICC releases the annual ODI rankings on May 2, because ODI rankings are calculated on a three-year cycle and what Hassan has said was based on a two-year cycle.

When the annual update will be carried out on May 1, the series results from three seasons – 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 – will be used for calculation purposes. However, results of 2013-14 and 2014-15 will be weighted at 50%, while results from 2015-2016 will be weighted at 100%.

The same three-year calculation process will be used to decide direct qualification for the 2019 World Cup, for which the cut-off date is September 17, 2017. The three seasons for calculation purposes in September 2017 will be 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons, with 2014-15 and 2015-16 carrying 50% weightage and 2016-17 carrying 100%. Host country England and the next seven top-ranked sides at that time will qualify.

The only way Bangladesh can be said to be ranked fifth is when one considers results from the seasons 2014-15 and 2015-16 as no matches in the 2016-17 season have been played yet. The 2015-16 season, which is weighted at 100% right now, saw Bangladesh beat Pakistan, India and South Africa in home series.

But Nazmul, who returned from Dubai on Monday, said that the ICC chief executive Dave Richardson announced during a meeting on Sunday the ICC ODI team rankings in which Bangladesh were on 101 rating points. According to the current rankings, they are seventh with 97 rating points.

“At the ICC meeting yesterday (Sunday), the highlight for us was the ODI rankings,” Nazmul said. “There it was disclosed that Bangladesh are No. 5. We always hovered around No. 9 or 10, and then we rose to No. 8 and 7. We are just one point above England and Sri Lanka who are in No. 6 and 7 with 100 points.”

Nazmul said that when he first saw the No. 5 ranking position through the papers sent by the ICC to him in Dhaka ahead of the meeting, he was also shocked with the new position.

“I saw this ranking before I went to the meeting because they always sent the papers before the meetings,” he said. “I thought they had made a mistake. I thought, ‘It was No. 7, when did they become No. 5?’

“I checked Cricinfo and there too we were No 7. I was in a lot of tension seeing the ranking so I was waiting for it to come up in the agenda in the meeting.”